ACC gets an upgrade with Louisville-for-Maryland trade

Wednesday

Nov 28, 2012 at 9:46 AMNov 28, 2012 at 4:11 PM

The Cardinals became the league's newest full-time member in unanimous vote of ACC presidents

By Brett Friedlanderstarnewsacc@gmail.com

The ACC had its choice of candidates to fill the vacancy left when Maryland departed for the Big Ten last week.Wednesday, it chose Louisville over UConn and Cincinnati.The Cardinals became the league’s newest full-time member in a unanimous vote of the ACC’s Council of Presidents. It’s a move that effectively completes a trade that cost the conference one of its charter members and 59 years of tradition, but could ultimately strengthen it both on and off the playing field.Not only is Louisville in a much better financial position than Maryland, which was forced to drop seven sports last summer because of budget shortfalls, but both its football and basketball programs have dropped off considerably in recent years.Louisville, by contrast, has traditionally boasted one of the nation’s top basketball programs while its football team that is currently 9-2 and ranked 23rd in the national coaches poll. It is also an upgrade in other sports such as baseball, where the Terrapins have traditionally lagged.The Cardinals will begin play in the ACC in 2014, the same year Maryland is scheduled to leave. Although the shakeup gives the league an opportunity to realign its divisions, Swofford said the immediate plan is for Louisville will fit into Maryland’s vacated spot in the current Atlantic Division.“With its aggressive approach to excellence in every respect, the University of Louisville will enhance our league’s culture and commitment to the cornerstones we were founded on 60 years ago,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement.In addition to its athletic advantages, Louisville is also a much more attractive fit for the ACC academically.UConn’s bid to join the league was likely hurt by its basketball team being barred from this season’s NCAA tournament for failing to meet the NCAA’s annual Academic Progress Rate requirements. But according to North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp, chairman of the league’s council of presidents, academics had little bearing on Wednesday’s decision.“I think we felt that what the ACC needed the most was to add the most exciting sports program that we could,” Thorp said on an ACC teleconference. “That is the way to ensure that the success of the ACC in sports was successful enough to allow us to keep our group together and we talked about that extensively. “But Louisville, (president) Jim Ramsey is an excellent leader in higher education and he’s done a lot with their university. It’s on an upward trajectory. We feel very good about the addition of Louisville in every respect, but our logic was that we wanted to make the ACC as exciting a sports conference as we possibly could and we felt that Louisville unambiguously did that for us the best.”Although the ACC could also have taken UConn, Cincinnati or several other schools that have expressed an interest in joining, the league decided to stick with 14 full-time members, instead of expanding to 16.It’s likely to stay that way until Notre Dame chooses to give up its football independence and become a full-time league member. And that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.Counting the Irish, who joined the league in September in all sports other than football, seven schools have left the Big East for the ACC since 2003.“When it became apparent to us that we needed to make a move, the ACC is the perfect fit for us and we are so elated to be joining this prestigious conference,” Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich said. “Under John Swofford’s leadership, the ACC continues to prosper. We sincerely appreciate this opportunity. This will open so many more doors for us both athletically for all of our sports programs, and academically for our university. “What I really like about this move is it’s terrific for our fans, with the proximity of the institutions and we never have to leave the Eastern time zone. This is a credit to everyone at the University of Louisville and our community, as we have all pulled together to position ourselves for this opportunity.”

ACC Insider Brett Friedlander can be reached at starnewsacc@gmail.com.

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